On my desk

I've had precious little time to myself this last month; there's always something housework-y that needs doing at any given time.  But I'm not too far behind on my project life albums and I've managed to fit some 12x12s in as well.

I took these photos intentionally so I could make this page documenting Sam's love of his monkey toy.  I wanted to pull out the bright red and orange alongside the pale blue of his babygro so I dug through my scraps and paper collections to find some different options.  It's simple, but it's another important story ready to go in his album (once I actually buy one for him....).

I made this for a class over at Big Picture Classes; the Art and Science of Scrapbooking, which looked at the concept of right- and left-brain tendencies.  The challenge was to find a beautiful photo and use this to make a layout (this is how I make most of my 12x12s, left-brained anyone?!).  I love the way Anna is looking at Andy.  I made 10 page-bases recently, using up the left-overs of a few collections that I loved, and this was one of them so this page came together really quickly.  The little deer diecut comes from the Studio Calico Printshop line but I really didn't think the colour went with any of the papers I bought from the line so I'm glad it got used here.

The realities of a photoshoot with three children - you get twenty or thirty crazy shots before you get the perfect pose with everyone smiling or at least looking at the camera!

Samuel's 3 month photoshoot; I'm adding the vest stickers as embellishment on these pages, mostly cos I can't throw anything away!  For this page, I pulled papers to match the stickers from the Simple Stories Baby Boy stickers, those elephants are so cute!

These two pages go next to each other and tell the story of the Easter Egg Hunt we went on with some of my mummy friends.  We've never done an egg hunt before and the children loved it.  I think the bit they enjoyed the most was playing around in the park and woods with their friends.  These are two more page bases with some similar papers to tie them together nicely.  I got to use up some really cute Easter project life printables from last year and a few random bits and bobs hanging around on my desk.

On the 11th of June

At 5 months old, you;

eat | still exclusively breast-feed every 3 or 4 hours.  You're awake once in the night around 3am to feed;

sleep | in your moses basket in the cot in the nursery, under a pile of handmade blankets (I love this about your bedding, so so much).  You're having 2 short naps in the morning and evening and a 2-3 hour mega-nap in the middle of the day;

wear | 3-6 month clothes, mostly just babygros.  It's still an event if you're wearing proper clothing.  I have pulled out some rompers for the hot hot days and you're not wearing a vest under your gro much these days;

poop | in cloth nappies all day, disposables at night;

love | your big brother, so so much, he's the funniest thing you've ever seen! Having your nappy changed so you can grab at your willy, and the baby wipes, and the packet, and pretty much everything else!  Being naked!

hate | waiting to be fed and not getting attention, you've turned into a proper little diva lately;

do | you stretch and try to roll but you can't quite sort your shoulders out to get all the way over, you have rolled from your front to your back on one occasion but you won't repeat the performance!  You still love to stand up and look around.  You can sit with support and you're straining to pull yourself forward from lying down;

say | burbling to yourself and blowing raspberries, with plenty of spit everywhere!  You're a social little thing and love to smile at the people who talk to you when we're out and about.  You've learned to laugh properly this month too, a lovely belly laugh;

grow | you cut your first tooth on the day you turned 5 months, so early!  You're bringing everything to your mouth for a good old chew.

Under canvas

Well, sort of.

Hubby grew up camping on the Isle of Wight as a boy and has a strong and fervent love for all things tenty.  We camped a couple of times before we had children, but I was not convinced of its merits.  The idea of taking a baby or small children camping did not fill me with joy; in fact, I expected to need a holiday after my holiday should we go camping as a family.  Until the Anna was on the way, we didn't even take a regular holiday each year.  We both agree that there are some lovely holiday destinations in this country and I'm not a fan of flying anyway.  So we have taken a few holidays in England, staying in holiday cottages but the boy starts school in September and taking a family of five away in school holidays would break our bank.

Enter the idea of a tent.  Apparently you can camp in relative comfort without crossing over into "glamping".  So we went and bought a tent.  An enormous, 8 man, inflatable tent (I know, I know, but go check them out, they're pretty cool).  We bought the essentials (sleeping bags, campbeds, an airbed, camping chairs) and planned out a strategy.  I have some pre-requisites for the campsite; hot showers, flushing toilets, running water.  And there's no way on earth I'm heading out for a week under canvas with no run-up.

We tested the sleeping bags at my parents' house a couple of weeks ago.  Well, the children in their sleeping bags really.  And they did a great job.

This past weekend, we headed out for an overnight stay not too far from home.  We packed the car and tootled up to Derbyshire on a sunny Saturday morning.  We arrived just before midday and started to make camp.  The tent took about an hour to inflate and peg out (it might have been quicker if the children hadn't "helped").  We put out all our equipment and headed off to Matlock in search of a playground (Isaac's request).  We wandered through a park, took a ride on a mini-train and spent a lovely hour playing in the sunshine.

We headed to a pub for dinner and ate our amazing steaks out in the sunny garden.  We arrived back at our campsite around 7pm with three very tired children.  Both the bigs needed a shower, an interesting experience even on a modern, well-equipped campsite.  They went to bed reasonably easily that night and hubby & I enjoyed the peaceful summer evening with a bottle of something cold.  Isaac slept really well that night, Anna was up a half a dozen times with a cough and Samuel just wouldn't settle in his cot so slept in my arms.

The next morning we got up and ate porridge at a picnic table before packing up all our stuff for the journey home.  The tent itself is really easy to deflate, if a little tricky to pack up into its carrying bag.  We were ready to go by our midday deadline, which is surprising for us, we're never on time anywhere.

We visited Matlock Farm Park and ate lunch in their cafe.  They had the best 'snack plate' for the children; Isaac ate everything on his!  The playground and the bouncy castle were the biggest hits but when we dragged the children away, they loved the animals too.  I had the best time holding a baby bunny with first Anna and then Isaac.  Anna's so funny with animals; she's fascinated and enchanted, until they get within a foot of her, at which point she becomes terrified!!

Unsurprisingly, all three children fell asleep in the car on the way home.  Hubby and I needed a good rest but all in all, we had a brilliant time.  We're planning our next trip already, two nights this time, I'm getting braver!

Around our dining room table

One of the memories I want to leave my children is that of sitting around the table as a family, enjoying food and conversation together.  As with seemingly every other aspect of parenting, it turns out that modelling the behaviour you want your children to adopt is the best route to take.  So the best way to teach table manners, healthy food attitudes and good conversational skills is to display them on a regular basis.

Part of our weaning strategy (if you can call it that) is having the children sit at the table as part of the family.  It feels awkward at first, to try and make conversation with a toddler while still maintaining some semblence of order.  Every day we ask the same question and let that lead us into a conversation.  "How was your day?"

It feels daft to ask a toddler what they did that day and what their favourite part was.  Especially when you then use closed questions to get them to tell you something you already know.  "Tell Daddy what you saw in the carpark."

But it's paying off, because now, the three year old is asking us how our day was.  And the two year old copies her brother.  And we're actually having a conversation.

On the 11th of May

You're in some brand-spanking new 3-6 month babygros (your cloth bum is too big for the slightly shrunken hand-me-downs you started the month in). You wear cloth nappies all day but disposable nappies overnight and when we go away.

You've learned to hold toys in your fists and pass from one hand to another. You bring everything to your mouth to be chewed! You've found your feet! You like to fiddle with your toes. You happily play on the floor or in your chair.

You've started arching your back and twisting so you'll be rolling soon. You pull yourself forward to sit up and you love to stand up. You're not so sure about tummy time but you'll tolerate it for longer than your siblings ever did! You've started to pull yourself forward to sit up.

You smile and laugh at funny noises, singing and being thrown around. You have found your voice; cooing, burbling and shrieking! You sleep in the car, but not every time any more. You still don't have a daily routine but you sleep well overnight with only one night feed. You settle down happily for your naps and nighttime sleep.  We know you're tired when you start rubbing your eyes or yawning.

You've found your thumb! You feed well but have started getting distracted and looking up at me to smile. You still have horrid wind and spit up after most feeds. You weighed 15lb 7oz at your four month check. You've had your first two sets of immunisations. You have another snotty cold.

You are a happy, smiley sociable baby.  You'll go to strangers without even blinking.  You find your brother fascinating and hilarious.  You find your sister slightly scary.